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Challenge
Episode 4, Season 5 of War. Enjoy. <3 Challenge Planning is always fun. Mischief undercut with seriousness. The only thing that makes it awkward is that Snowflight is with us, and we aren't really sure how to include her in everything. "EarthClan squads are different then the traditional FireClan and WaterClan types," Adderscar meows. "They're made of a commander, a 'bruiser'- a big, strong warrior, a medicine cat, a tracker, a brain, and two regular warriors. They also work differently than the other Clans in battle- their philosophical battle motto is 'defensive teamwork'. They work like different limbs of the same cat. They also fight defensively, letting their opponents tire themselves out before they move in for the kill." Adderscar meows, looking smug as ever to show off his knowledge. "What's WaterClan's 'philosophical battle motto'?" Stormflight asks, whiskers twitching. "'Flowing efficiency'," Adderscar answers, ignoring Oakclaw and Stormflight's muted purrs. "We're as swift, efficient, and graceful as the river in battle." "Oh, that's definitely us," I giggle. "Efficient and graceful." "AirClan doesn't have one, because they're pacifists," Adderscar goes on. "And FireClan's is...um..." "'Forever strong'," a soft voice says. We all stop our laughing and turn to see Snowflight staring at us with emotionless amber eyes. "It's 'forever strong'." "Thanks," Adderscar says finally. He looks at Gorsefur, "My advice is to send out a few scouts to see their positions and so on before we attack." "Right," Gorsefur says. "Um...Brookfall and...no...Stormflight and Snowflight...no, wait. Stormflight and Oakclaw...no, that's not right either. Adderscar and Storm...no." We all stare at him while he continues muttered to himself. I find myself growing increasingly worried as the others start exchanging glances. Gorsefur's eyes finally light up and he meows triumphantly. "Oakclaw and Adderscar!" The toms both groan and trudge off, a far distance away from each other. "The rest of you should...um..." "We'll go hunting!" I say quickly, giving Gorsefur a look. He looks at his paws and nods and slowly, the rest of us trickle out of the clearing, leaving Gorsefur curled up to sleep a little. He needs it. Something's wrong, I can feel it. Oakclaw and Adderscar trudged through the forest, not talking. It's not that I don't like him, Oakclaw reasoned. He's just so...sad. And annoying. And depressing. And annoying. And also, sometimes, I feel the urge to just give him a smack. "We're almost there," Adderscar meowed finally, "I can smell the border." Oakclaw nodded and walked a little slower so he could concentrate on being quiet. The smaller tom effortlessly padded through the forest. Oakclaw hated him for a moment. "Here," Adderscar whispered, the single word a feather on the breeze. Oakclaw half expected a hoard of wild EarthClan cats to run out shrieking at the sound. But if there were any, they were hidden. After a while of sitting there, Oakclaw finally said, "I don't think they're here. Do we just....go over?" If it was FireClan, they would have gone right over. They would have gone right over and stolen some prey and laughed. But this...this felt wrong. Weird. Unnatural. It was different. Adderscar, despite his cocky attitude, seemed to share Oakclaw's unease. "I guess..." He lifted a paw and slowly reached it over the border. And, as they both held their breath, he set it down. He was inside EarthClan territory. Both of the toms let out relieved sighs. "That wasn't so bad," Oakclaw muttered. "Well what did you think was going to happen?" Adderscar asked, rolling his eyes though his paw shook a little, planted in the EarthClan soil. "-happen?" another voice said. Oakclaw pricked his ears. "D'you hear an echo?" Adderscar shook his head, "There wouldn't be an echo here because-" "I don't need an explanation, just shut up," Oakclaw crouched, listening. Reluctantly, Adderscar did the same. "I dunno, just...this is weird," a faint she-cat voice meowed. "Tell me you don't feel like this is wrong." Adderscar nodded at Oakclaw and pulled himself through the bushes, the bigger tom following. In a few fox-lengths, they could hear the voices clearly. Oakclaw peeked out from behind a tree and saw a dusty brown she-cat with long whiskers and bright green eyes and a long-furred dark-brown tabby who was currently rolling his eyes. "-it's wrong or not doesn't matter," the tom was saying. "We're at war...weird as it is." The she-cat nodded, still looking miserable. Oakclaw made a list in his mind of all the stupid mistakes they were making. There were only two of them. They were talking loudly. They weren't bothering to camouflage themselves or scent the air. They were in ethical doubt- which wasn't a mistake, just stupid to think about if you were already on enemy territory. This'll be easy, Oakclaw thought in satisfaction. "We'd better-" the tom started. Adderscar leapt out of the bushes and Oakclaw muttered a curse before tumbling after him. "Get off our territory?" Adderscar finished. "Yeah, you shou-" He was cut off as the she-cat shrieked and smacked him across the face, sending the light tom flying back into the bushes. "Oh, jeez, I'm so sorry!" the she-cat wailed, dashing over to Adderscar. "Are you okay? It's just, that's what they said we should do if we got ambushed and I-" "Petalpad..." the tom sighed heavily, not even bothering to try and criticize her. "What?" Petalpad defended, her eyes sharp. "It was rude of me and- oh, wait right. Fighting." And without another word, she was once more crouched at the tom's side. "You're move...WaterClan...fish...faces." "Nice insult," Oakclaw called, whiskers twitching. The she-cat snarled, but there was a hint of a purr in it. "They're going to wait for us to make the first move," Adderscar muttered, staggering back to Oakclaw. "Remember their philo-" "Oh, would you shut up?" Oakclaw rolled his eyes. "Let's just jump them!" And he did just that, ignoring Adderscar's call as he leapt for the tom and landed squarely...behind him? "What the-" Oakclaw turned to see the tom had rolled away with ease and was now weaving in front of him. "If that's how it's going to be," he growled, swinging forward with a whirl of claws. The EarthClan tom clearly didn't expect him to do that and he fell to the ground, bleeding from a shallow wound on his shoulder. "Birchbark!" Petalpad yowled. Instead of lunging for Oakclaw like he expected, she darted to where Birchbark was struggling to his paws, "You okay?" He nodded and they turned on Oakclaw, before his eyes, becoming a whirling mass of claws and teeth and acting as though they were one cat instead of two. One very big, scary, dangerous cat. "Little help?" he called to Adderscar, the ginger tom washing his paws on a rock. "Apologize for telling me to shut up first!" Adderscar said lazily, switching paws. "That's stupid!" Oakclaw yowled, enraged. He soon changed his mind though as a well placed blow from Petalpad nicked his ear. "Okay, fine, I'm sorry." "Great!" Adderscar stood, shaking out his pelt, and then tackled Petalpad. The she-cat rolled over, crushing Adderscar beneath her and stood. The ginger tom darted beneath her legs and she tripped. "This is an embarrassment," Oakclaw sighed. "Tell me about it," Birchbark rolled his eyes. "I'm our best fighter and Petalpad is the smartest cat in our squad," "She doesn't really show it," Oakclaw observed. "Harebrained and naive," Birchbark edited, purring. "But crazy smart." "We can hear you, y'know!" Petalpad called, rolling to her paws. A stick was stuck in her fur. Adderscar nodded, spitting out some moss. "What are your names?" Birchbark asked, friendly curiosity lighting up his brown eyes. "Oakclaw and Adderscar," Adderscar answered quickly, before Oakclaw could introduce him as something like 'Dirtface'. It had happened before. "You guys fight really well!" Petalpad meowed enthusiastically. "I mean, I never saw you coming towards me," she said to Adderscar. "And you were so good at feinting," she said to Oakclaw. "You guys are so fast though, with your rolls and weaving around," Oakclaw shot back, feeling at ease. "At least our pelts are brown so you don't see how dirty we get," Petalpad joked. They all purred for a moment before Adderscar had to go and say what they were all thinking. "This is wrong." They all looked at him, half-questioningly, half-hoping he would stop talking and let them continue socializing. "He's right," Birchbark sighed. "We're supposed to be enemies." "But they're not...enemies." Petalpad protested. "They seem really nice." She looked to them, big eyes watering. "I don't want to fight you guys." If a FireClan cat had said it, he would've laughed and proceeded to say something kick-tail and then kick their tails. But this was EarthClan. This he understood. This wasn't a lifelong enemy or a constant rival. This was the friendly neighbors, the occasional allies. All because Earthstar was worried of FireClan retaliation if they didn't help. "What do we do?" Petalpad asked. None of them had an answer. Gorsefur logically knew he was dreaming. But it all felt so real. The grass, the river, the wind. He lay down, staring up and wondering if he could fall asleep in a dream. "So did you do it?" He almost bit his tongue off he was so surprised. He turned to see a black she-cat with ice blue eyes, a silver chest, paws, and muzzle. Someone he owed body and mind to. Someone dead and gone. "This is StarClan," he whispered, in awe. Only Starpaws, medicine cat, leaders, and very few, lucky warriors ever got to see it before they died. Which made him wonder if he was dead. Aquasplash nodded. She sat beside him, "So did you do it?" "Do what?" "Save the world. You know, you only get to utter dying words once. The least you could do is remember mine." Gorsefur flattened his ear. "No. No I haven't." Aquasplash stretched, the cool grass tickling her stomach. "Gorsefur, the last time I saw you, you were broken. You'd been kidnapped and tortured by FireClan for half a moon." Gorsefur, though he didn't want to think back, remember those time, nodded. "You told me you were upset because you thought you had failed," Aquasplash went on. "Which was incredibly illogical, right? You were a hero, going back after your friend and-" she stopped, looking embarrassed. "Anyways. And then when you should have felt like you failed- when you let that FireClan cat sneak up on you, when I died for you, you felt better." "So you brought me here to tell you I'm sick?" Gorsefur asked. "No," Aquasplash purred, her eyes still worried. "I brought you here because you have an incredible will to survive. To move on and be strong. But lately, things have been piling up. Am I right?" Badgerstrike. Silverflower. Oakclaw, broken-hearted. Shadowsong missing. Grayleaf had been captured. Badgerstrike was gone, again. All of these mistakes on his watch, all of these things his fault. "Yeah," he said, suddenly feeling like he couldn't breath. Aquasplash stood and walked, crouching, so she was looking into his eyes. "That's a load of dirt," she said, very slowly. Despite himself, Gorsefur purred. "You are a fantastic, yet somehow extremely unlucky commander." Aquasplash continued. "And you need to stop letting your doubts get the best of you. For StarClan's sake, you can't even decide who to send scouting! I'' could do that, and I'm not even a soldier!" Gorsefur understood. Sort of. "Did it hurt?" he whispered. Her eyes shimmered with emotion as she looked away, than nodded. "But it was worth it," she looked back at him, "Because you can do good things, amazing things, things that I could never do, now. And I think that's what you've forgotten." Seeing his puzzled look, she purred and explained, "You keep forgetting that everyone in your squad would give their life for you, or each other. Even that Snowflight she-cat. They know the risks, they just need you to call the shots. So call the shots, and don't worry about anything else." Gorsefur nodded, feeling better. Brookfall and Oakclaw had been trying to tell him that for days, but somehow, hearing it from someone he felt like he failed in a rather large way was reassuring. "Thanks." "Gorsefur?" He looked up to find himself caught in her icy eyes. But they were warm with care. She seemed to be struggling with the words. "I still can't find it. I thought, just...up here. With all these wise spirits and all..." she snorted, shaking her head bitterly. Gorsefur remembered a night by the river. He told her he wanted to save the world. She just wanted to find a place with no wars, no lies, no hate. "Keep looking," he said. "And if I manage to save the world, maybe that can be your place." She gave a watery smile. "I'm still not sorry." "For what?" She'd always been amazing to him. She saved him three times now- twice from himself, once from death. "You said you were sorry you ever met me. Because otherwise I would still be alive. But I'm not sorry." She was so bright and broken and he felt like he was going to start crying, something toms did not particularly enjoy feeling. "Don't be sad," she whispered. Gorsefur was swept away in the memories of a camp by the river with a dying she-cat who had repeated these same words to him as the dream faded away. "You'll make me sad." By the time we got back to camp, the sun was setting and we were laden with prey. Grayleaf had found some really rare herb thing and was chatting about it to poor Stormflight, who had no choice but to listen, as his mouth was full with squirrel. Snowflight had no difficulty catching something, and she managed to get almost as much as the rest of us combined. I wanted to tell her she didn't need to prove herself, but I didn't. It would have been embarrassing. We stagger back into the camp and drop our prey, working sore jaws. Gorsefur is awake and staring at the sky. I pad over to him, the others knowing enough to stay away. "You okay?" He looks at me. "I wasn't. But I think I am now." "You were acting really weird," I tell him, letting out all the insecurities, the worries that have been nagging at me for the past few days. "And I wanted to try and figure out how to tell you that none of this is you're fault, that you're the best-" He silences me by touching his nose to mine and I lose my self in it. When we surface, the others have stopped eating and are giving us weird looks. Which is ''so hypocritical, given how much making out Snowflight and Stormflight do when they think no one is looking. Like they don't know we know they're together. It's adorable. We're halfway through our meal when Adderscar and Oakclaw pad back in. They're strangely quiet and we all stop and watch as they pad across the clearing, sit, and slide pieces of prey in front of them, eating. "...So?" Gorsefur finally asks. "Well," Adderscar glances at Oakclaw, then clears his throat. "There...wasn't...an EarthClan squad." "What?" I ask, whiskers twitching. "You mean you couldn't find them?" "No," Adderscar glares at me. "They weren't there. We must've been misinformed," "Uhuh," Gorsefur looks at them critically. Oakclaw jumps in, "Yeah, but it's okay because we learned some EarthClan fighting moves that will help us if we do run into them." "Who'd you learn them from if there weren't any EarthClan cats there?" Grayleaf asks curiously. Adderscar glares at Oakclaw who shrugs. "It was...a traveling...EarthClan pacifistic...military guru." We all stare at him for a moment. Finally, Stormflight meows slowly, "So...you're going with 'There was no EarthClan squad, but a helpful traveling pacifistic EarthClan military guru who taught us some really cool EarthClan tactics'." "Ye-es," Oakclaw nods, looking uncertain. Stormflight plants his face in his paws and we can hear him mumble, "How do we ever get anything done?" "Can I talk to you for a second?" Gorsefur asks, eyes narrowing a little. He pads off with them and, after a moment, I see him looking back at me. Oh, I guess the second is supposed to go too. I scramble after, Grayleaf and Snowflight watching in amusement as Stormflight continues muttering. "What in the name of StarClan is wrong with you two?" Gorsefur hisses, the moment I get in listening distance. "We just-" "They were-" "-and we-" "One at a time," Gorsefur finally meows after a few seconds of that. Adderscar starts, "Look, we did find a few scouts. And we kind of...scuffled. But they're not FireClan, Gorsefur. They're just cats like us and they don't want to be here. They're so...naive. And terrible at this whole war thing." "Besides," Oakclaw jumps in, "By the time you go to check on our story, they'll be gone anyways. They were only here to test the waters by the border and report back to their Main. Plus they showed us some cool fighting moves." We look at Gorsefur with bated breath and he seems to be thinking. Something's in his eyes and I worry for a moment that he's not okay. That he's not better. That he'll freefall into the darkness of his own mind and I'll be left with the choice to fall with him or try to hopelessly raise him back up. But he purrs. "I'm proud of you guys." "Really?" They both perk up and my whiskers twitch. Gorsefur nods, "I mean, you're obviously both stupid and unpatriotic," he smirks. "But I'm proud of you." And I'm proud of him. The night is big and clear with a huge yellow moon hanging above the silent forest. Gorsefur and I are technically standing watch, but it's more of a sitting down/oogling at each other fest. We don't get enough time to be couply, especially with the others around. So this is...nice. "We should probably go in and get someone else," Gorsefur says sleepily. "The den is a cave," I shudder. "Caves are creepy." "We've been in tons of caves." "And I haven't liked a single one!" His side vibrates as he purrs and I poke him, "Shut up!" "Fine!" He does and we muzzle. Then my ears prick, "You hear that?" "What?" He stops, our breaths coming in quiet, shallow, shortness until Gorsefur looks at me, eyes wide. "Someone's there," he whispers. I nod and we get up creeping towards the noise. The grass beneath our paws slopes upward, making it easy to crouch and pull ourselves forward. It ends in a small cliff and we peek over the edge. EarthClan. Not the friendly faces that Adderscar and Oakclaw told us about, but muscled, lean, angry looking EarthClan cats. Definitely not the same squad. They're on our territory too. "Go get the others," Gorsefur whispers. "I'll distract them." "But what about your whole 'being careful thing'?" I ask, my voice rising in panic. "What if-" "I know the risks," he meows seriously. Then his face breaks into a smile. "And I know you run fast." And so I do. I pelt into the den, "Everyone up, we got EarthClan coming," "We told you," Oakclaw grumbles, "They left." "Different squad," there's a general heavy sigh around the den and I start to lose my patience. "Gorsefur's out there. Alone." And then everyone's up and following me as we pelt to the cliff. I can see Gorsefur, a dark silhouette against the night. He blocks out the stars and I feel my heart pound a little. He looks and sees us before turning back to the EarthClan cats. "Seven of us against seven of you. So, get off our territory. Now." "I don't think so," a gruff tom's voice comes back. Gorsefur looks at me and gives this little shrug. And with a fierce battlecry, he throws himself off the cliff, landing squarely on the big tom who I figure is the commander. The rest of us echo him and follow suit. I've never fought EarthClan, I just have Oakclaw and Adderscar's questionable advice to go on. And we do okay. But where we are agile, like fish leaping down the river, these cats are boulders. Hard, unmoving, uncaring boulders. And they crush us. "We need to retreat!" I call to Gorsefur as I slash at an EarthClan tom. He reels away, nose bleeding, but I know he'll be back. Gorsefur nods and looks around to see if the others are ready. Stormflight and Snowflight have taken care of two cats, but a third is pressing on them and they looks exhausted. Adderscar is pinned beneath a larger tom and Oakclaw is holding off two attackers. He gives the order and we scramble back up the cliff, Gorsefur turning to help Adderscar as the EarthClan cats regroup. I turn around for one second. To make sure everyone got over okay. And when I turn back I see the EarthClan cats lunging for Gorsefur and Adderscar, in a wave. I shriek, stumbling down the hill to help even though I know I'll be too late. Gorsefur shoves Adderscar up the hill and turns, slashing in a line in front of him. The EarthClan cats flinch back, buying him a few seconds. It's not enough. I don't know which one of them does it, but one of them gets him. I see blood leaking onto the mud as he sprints to us. He takes a deep breath as he reaches the cliff, then collapses. He tries to get up, but Adderscar and I are already half-carrying, half-dragging him towards the den. We get there and I can already here the EarthClan cats yowling as they come to finish us off. Oakclaw meets us with wide eyes and calls for Grayleaf as we get Gorsefur to a nest. He's bleeding heavily and though he keeps saying he's fine, Grayleaf looks nervous. "What do we do?" Stormflight asks. And that's when I realize. He's asking me. I'm the second. It's my job now. The weight of our world lands on my small shoulders. "Oakclaw, go check outside," I order tersely, but calmer than I thought I could manage. He nods and darts outside. After a few moments, I hear him calling my name softly. I get outside and stand next to him. "The EarthClan cats are coming that way," he nods to the right and I look, not able to see them yet. But I trust him. "But," he swallows and turns to the left. "We have two more visitors coming in from that way." These visitors I can see. Two pairs of amber eyes. Coats light and dark. As if night and day donned pelts and stuck on the same eyes. "Lionwing," I gasp. "And Shadowsong," Oakclaw adds, a little more hopefully than I'd like. Dirt. Category:Artimas Hunter's Fanfics